October 20, 2016
Danger from coal slurry being tipped at the rear of the Pantglas School
21st October 1966, 9.20am and school had just started. (Trigger warning - immense tragedy involving children.)
It's 50 years to the day that the tragedy at Aberfan occurred. A school was lost and a community was devastated. And those responsible denied their culpability for as long as possible. [more inside]
Grains! GRAINS!
wooden skyscrapers
New techniques mean that wood can now be used for much taller buildings - "Wood has many attractions as a construction material, apart from its aesthetic qualities. A wooden building is about a quarter of the weight of an equivalent reinforced-concrete structure, which means foundations can be smaller. Timber is a sustainable material and a natural 'sink' for CO2... Using wood could reduce their carbon footprint by 60-75%, according to some studies. There are two main concerns about using wood to build high. The first is whether wood is strong enough... the second worry: fire."
Weekendkiller VI Debuts
The sixth official installment in the Civilization computer game series drops any minute now, and the anticipation is at its usual fever pitch. [more inside]
Joe Biden Has a 1967 Corvette
“So the customer essentially handed the banker a blank check,”
Wells Fargo Fined $185 Million for Fraudulently Opening Accounts [The New York Times] “For years, Wells Fargo employees secretly issued credit cards without a customer’s consent. They created fake email accounts to sign up customers for online banking services. They set up sham accounts that customers learned about only after they started accumulating fees. On Thursday, these illegal banking practices cost Wells Fargo $185 million in fines, including a $100 million penalty from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the largest such penalty the agency has issued. Federal banking regulators said the practices, which date back to 2011, reflected serious flaws in the internal culture and oversight at Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s largest banks. The bank has fired at least 5,300 employees who were involved. In all, Wells Fargo employees opened roughly 1.5 million bank accounts and applied for 565,000 credit cards that may not have been authorized by customers, the regulators said in a news conference. The bank has 40 million retail customers.” [more inside]
How to Suppress Women’s Criticism
And in the thoughtless, uncredited, mangled deployment of that phrase — even in praise — Gaiman broke the chain between the two of them; a prominent, living male artist inserted between Russ’ ideas and Jackson’s reality.On Neil Gaiman, Shirley Jackson, and the importance of not erasing women’s writing by Carmen Maria Machado
The secret behind Italy's rarest pasta
"[I]n a modest apartment in the town of Nuoro, a slight 62-year-old named Paola Abraini wakes up every day at 7 am to begin making su filindeu – the rarest pasta in the world."
American gun violence and legislation in the "shelter in place" age
We teach our students that the first move in an argument is often one of definition: gun as tool. Gun as "objective correlative" (T. S. Eliot) of "liberty" (Wayne LaPierre). Gun as "right" that, if left "unexercised," will be lost (opencarry.org). While running for president, Jeb Bush argued that our country is a gun when he tweeted a photo of his engraved handgun with a one-word caption, "America." A gun is a little cannon for killing that we've sentimentalized and normalized. [American Weather]
It must have sounded like a tire factory.
In 2008, Iggy Pop asked Jim Jarmusch to make a documentary about Pop's wildly unsuccessful (until recently) but hugely influential band The Stooges. It took 7 years, during which time many of the original members died... but now the film is finished, and it opens in limited release on October 28th. Pop and Jarmusch interviewed each other in Rolling Stone for the release. [more inside]
Destination: Anywhere
Alan Turing law to be passed, pardoning thousands
Thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted under outdated gross indecency laws are to be posthumously pardoned, the Government has announced, in a “momentous” victory for campaigners‘. Alan Turing law’ unveiled by government will posthumously pardon thousands of gay men convicted of historic offences.
盲人摸象
“We live in China, but we saw Fugazi’s DVD as many times as you guys did in America,” says Xubo, singer and guitarist for the most successful contemporary emo band in China, Chinese Football. “I grew up [on] the late ‘90s and early ’00s pop-punk and emo wave,” he says, “so I loved U.S. bands like blink-182, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, and all the bands from Drive-Thru Records back in high school. As I grew up, I listened to more and more.” - The rise of Emo in Asia
A look back
From Sugarhill Gang to Trinidad James, a Look at the Influences of Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars' 'Uptown Funk'
Part of the excitement of Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk," the just-released kickoff single from the DJ/producer's Uptown Special is catching the allusions to one early '80s funk/R&B classic after another. Even on Ronson's own Facebook page fans cite "Cameo horns, the Time [keyboards], and 'Party Train' [by the Gap Band] drums."There’s an irony here. Because “Uptown Funk” is effectively a new Bruno Mars single as well, it received instant airplay at top 40 radio, including the “world premiere” treatment from some iHeart Media stations. By comparison, many of the early ‘80s classics referenced were released during the worst period of a "disco backlash" that effectively kept all types of black music, not just disco, off of top 40 for three years, beginning in fall 1979.
A tiny bit of election relief: Tiny animals in tiny sweaters
He's the best at what he does
Hugh Jackman unsheathes his claws one last time to bid farewell to Wolverine AKA Logan AKA James Howett, a role he has played for 17 years. The first trailer for Logan, which borrows some concepts from the grimdark Old Man Logan comics by longtime MetaFilter-favorite Mark Millar, is out. The film is directed by James Mangold, who directed the second standalone film starring everyone's favorite hairy Canuck as well as a little biopic that bears some connection to the trailer's music and title card look. [more inside]
Click!
After endless speculation and at the tail end of a console that was largely a commercial flop, Nintendo has unveiled the Nintendo Switch. [more inside]
What in the actual duck
Daniel Turducken Stinkerbutt is an emotional support duck that recently flew for the first time. (SLWP) The duck’s human introduced him to their fellow, now-amused passengers: This was Daniel Turducken Stinkerbutt, or Daniel for short. He is a 4 1/2-year-old Indian Runner duck and is her emotional support animal, she explained.
The End of 'Midshipman'?
The Navy is jettisoning its complex ratings system to make sailors' jobs more understandable and allow them to more easily transfer occupations. This change represents a significant cultural shift and it is recognized that it will not happen overnight, but will take time to become fully adapted. [more inside]
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